Courage for the Cabinet Girl
The novel opens in August 1939, when nineteen-year-old Katie Valentine is left a legacy from her aunt, on the proviso that she will leave her job looking after greyhounds at a race track and do a secretarial course. As a result, Katie is able to get a job at the War Office in Whitehall and is then transferred to the Cabinet War Rooms in the basement. She is determined to do what she can to use her skills to help the war effort and progress within the War Rooms to get as close as possible to the running of the war. The plot really gets going, approximately one hundred pages into the novel, with the introduction of the love interest, Wing Commander Baxter Edwards, who is a charming and appealing romantic lead.
The reader gets a good sense of the claustrophobia and intensity of working in the Cabinet War Rooms, with a lot of people in close proximity, and the dominance of Winston Churchill. There are some moments of heightened tension, usually swiftly resolved within a chapter or two rather than developed throughout the book. There is quite a bit of author exposition referencing the key events of WW2 and how the war progressed up until the midpoint. The ending, when it comes, is rather abrupt but does tie all loose ends together.
Overall, the development of the relationship between Katie and Baxter is at the heart of this novel and makes it a pleasant read, especially if you like a WW2-themed romance.
